Immigration warns of fake website

A scam website pretending to be that of Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has prompted a warning from the real government department.

The fake site looks strikingly like the official one, but there is a slight difference in the domain name.

The official website is immigration.govt.nz, while the phoney one replaces the dot with a dash and shows up at immigration-govt.nz.

INZ says the fraudsters are using phishing scams to trick people into handing over their personal information such as personal banking details, IRD numbers, social media passwords and in this case passport details.

People receive an email appearing to be from a trusted source inviting them to click on a link which takes them to the fake website where they are asked to enter their details.

INZ says it is investigating ways to get the site removed.

Possible victims of the scam can get more information from the Consumer Affairs website.